He usually flashes a weapon, either a gun or a knife, approaches a victim and takes whatever he wants — typically a cell phone or other gadget, but sometimes also jewelry, cash and wallets, police said, adding all of the attacks have happened between 7:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m.

“I’m very concerned because I work in this area,” said East Village resident Pearl Holford told CBS 2’s Weijia Jiang. “You want to be careful with someone who’s violent like that, running up on you.”

The first incident happened on May 5 in an elevator on Avenue C, though most of the robberies have been on the street, police said. Nearly a dozen attacks happened near the East River Park. The most recent muggings happened on Friday. Both in the same location — on 14th Street near Avenue C, police said.

It appears the suspect is going after young people. Most of the victims are between 16 and 23 years old, but the oldest victim was 59.

The NYPD described the suspect as being 30 to 40 years old, between 5-feet-9 and 6-foot with a thin mustache and thin beard.